Finding Your Right Price

Aside from marketing, I have rarely seen an issue that brings up so much confusion and anxiety among business people as proper pricing.

People worry that it’s too high, it’s too low, am I valuing my product or service enough, what about the competition? There are a lot of opinions out there about how to set prices. People tell you to “analyze your competition,” to “do market research, including demographics, and needs assessments.” You know what I say to all of that? Oy!

It can sometimes be very useful to do research and market comparisons … but, to tell you the truth, for the scale most of us are working on as entrepreneurs, if you create the spaciousness in your heart to really listen to the truth, and not to the flights of your fears or your ego, you will land on the “right” price- the resonant price.

The key is that the price has to be authentic to you. I’ve seen people, including myself, take some pretty hard falls by trying to price themselves in inauthentic ways. Without using your heart, market research and comparisons can lead you to an inauthentic price for yourself- and therein lies disaster.

Authentic pricing is something we just know.

We’ve all had the experience where we spent money that didn’t feel good. We pay too much for something, and we feel like we’ve been taken advantage of, and we usually know it as we’re handing the money over. And we’ve also seen when prices are set too low and make us wonder “What’s wrong here? Is there something I don’t know about?”

Yet I think most of us have also had the experience of buying some product or service, and it just felt like a great value. We feel like what we bought was a great thing, and we felt happy giving the money to the seller.

Let me give you an example.

I had a client who was in a service business, teaching yoga and providing individual healing/yoga instruction. She fought raising her prices, scared that she would lose the clients she had. We went through a process in my seminar of having everyone “feel” in their hearts how the different prices resonated- going up the scale from lower than what she was charging currently, to very much higher than the top of her comfort zone.

What she got was that her price needed to go from $60 to $75. Everyone else in the group, independently, (this exercise is done silently except for my guidance) also got that $75 was the price that felt the best. Then she had a moment of truth when she realized that clients had recently tipped her $15 over her $60 asking price. $75 was what her clients resonated with as the right price. Her price was so much under what it should have been, that people were unconsciously paying her “right” price. Up went her prices, no problem.

On the other side, I worked in a company under another coach who mentored me. She gave me no control over my pricing- coaching was a package- individual sessions with me, and a group coaching meeting that she facilitated. The problem was, her group package prices were a big jump for me, and I collapsed under them- I was never able to enroll many people at that price, certainly not enough to make it as a business.

Now, with a lot more experience and confidence under my belt, on my own I can easily charge a comparable price for myself. I’ve grown, my prices have grown, and so has my business, from an authentic place.

Give yourself the time to find what your “right” price is- you might be very surprised.

Keys to The Right Price

• Get clear on how you are charging– is it a value-based package, is it by the hour, is it per product? Once clear, pick a low end of the scale- lower than you would feel comfortable with- and a high end of the scale- higher than you would ever charge. Run up the scale using your heart to feel each price. Note down which prices felt more open, or “brighter,” and which ones felt more closed, or made you feel collapsed or overwhelmed.

• Generally there isn’t just one “right” price. Usually it’s in a range where the low end is more comfortable, and the high end is more of a stretch. Pick a number that both feels open and stretches you a bit, because if you pick a number that feel completely comfortable, it will seem too low after you charge that price for a few weeks.

• An inauthentic price can be too high as well as too low. This isn’t a contest to see how high you can get your price- you are trying to feel the right resonant price that will open the door to the most people.

• Do this process with a few friends or colleagues. It’s easier to trust yourself when you see that other people are getting the same or very similar answers to what you are getting.